BIOMASS
31.3. - 4.4. 2020

Trade Fair for Renewable Sources of Energy in Agriculture and Forestry

Historical record-breaking TECHAGRO 2014 – preliminary final report

The group of agricultural and forestry equipment trade fairs was record-breaking
in all its parameters. The indoor as well as outdoor exhibition spaces at the
Brno Exhibition Centre were used up to the full capacity, the exhibition stands
even occupied lawns and other unusual exhibition spaces. The number of visitors
surpassed all expectations and soared up to 120 thousand people over five days.
Over the first three months of the year, a total of 340,000 people thus came to
visit the Exhibition Centre in Brno. An absolute record was recorded on Sunday,
30th March, when the exhibition centre gates were crossed by as much as 38,034 visitors
making it the highest number in all trade fairs organised in Brno over the past
10 years. Just during the first day, the number of arriving visitors was higher
than during the entire first edition of the fair back in 1994. „This year’s Techagro
has definitively confirmed its supra-regional Central European importance, being
one of the three leading agrarian technology fairs in Europe,“ said Managing
Director of BVV Trade Fairs Brno, Jiří Kuliš.

The
Brno exhibition of agricultural, breeding and forestry equipment was held in
Brno for the first time 20 years ago and it presently ranks the third largest
show of its type in Europe. This position is also confirmed by its international
nature - both the exhibitors as well as visitors arrived from four dozen
countries around the world this year. More than 300 trips organised for experts
from agricultural companies and firms arrived at the fair. Approximately 250
buses came to the exhibition centre from all regions of the Czech Republic
along with 50 buses from Slovakia and several dozens from Austria, Slovenia, Serbia,
Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland.

Domestic
as well as foreign exhibitors were highly satisfied with the scope of the offer
and the number of presented innovations. The exhibitors included all the
leading European manufacturers and distributors of agricultural and forestry
equipment. The best exhibit competition was entered by 87 top quality products and
thirteen of them were awarded the Grand Prix.

The
TECHAGRO fair is a traditional bellwether of the market mood and indicates the
future trends in agricultural equipment sales during the entire season. The
high visit rate and the shopping desire have issued a positive signal to the
vendors and confirm the optimistic expert expectations.

The
fairs offered an extensive specialist supporting programme addressing the
current issues faced by the sector. The development of international business
cooperation was the subject of roundtable „Euro-Asian Economic Commission – Russia-Kazakhstan-Belorussia-Czech
Republic“. The trends in supporting young farmers was the subject of the XVIII
Congress of the Young Agrarians´ Society of the Czech Republic and the
prospects of family-run farms was the subject of a seminar organised by the Association
of Private Farmers „Year of family run farms“.

As
part of the ANIMAL VETEX fair, a two-day
6th Central European Veterinary Congress was held, involving 180veterinary
experts from the CR and
abroad.

The
specialist supporting programme at the SILVA REGINA fair covered all five days
of the fair and was taking place in the lecture hall of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology of Mendel University
in Brno. It was dedicated to topics such as use of wood in building
industry, European forestry policy, state forestry policy, CR forest inventory
and services for forest owners.

The
BIOMASS fair offered several cycles of lectures and presentations focusing on
composting, biomass and energy use of wood mass. Great attention was paid to
twenty practical demonstrations of crushing and chipping, engaging equipment of
ten exhibiting firms.

The
trade fairs attracted not only professionals but also the general public who
could enjoy attractive supporting programmes at the exhibition centre organised
by partner organisations as well as the exhibitors. Great attention was also
paid to the livestock show with a commented presentation of cattle, sheep and
goats. The skills presented by lumberjack athletes could be admired by the
spectators during several show sand competitions including a qualification
competition as part of the Czech championship in timber sports STIHL®
TIMBERSPORTS®.

Thanks
to the cooperation with the Association of Entrepreneurs ,SILVAJAGD, Hall
Z hosted a number of unique hunting and forestry exhibits from museums and
private collections, including unique trophies from hunting grounds of the
Military Forests and Compounds of the Czech and Slovak Republics on display for
the first time. Introducing agriculture and forest management to the youngest generation
was the purpose of Agriculture lives! and forest pedagogy which attracted
hundreds of child visitors.

The entire ground floor of Hall E was occupied by a
large bee keeping exhibition with a record-breaking number of bee keepers. A
broad assortment of bee products with Easter theme was complemented by a course
of lectures on bee keeping.

JournalistsOver
the first four days, a total of 261 media representatives from eight countries
got accredited at the press centre. The total number of foreign journalists was
36, coming from Bulgaria, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Slovakia
and Slovenia.

The next edition of the TECHAGRO,
ANIMAL VETEX, SILVA REGINA and BIOMASS fair will take place between 3rd - 7th
April 2016.

What was said about
the fairs

Marian Jurečka, Minister of Agriculture of the CR:
I am greatly honoured to open the fairs. First time I was here in 1994 I was
thirteen and I have been lucky enough not to miss any of the editions to date.
Once in two years, this is the most important event in agriculture and forestry.
I would be very happy if the record-breaking number of exhibitors and record-breaking
exhibition space was also complemented by a record-breaking number of visitors
and a record-breaking number of deals were agreed and made here. One of the
purposes of TECHAGRO is to make the people engaged in agriculture meet, speak
to each other, foster their friendship and further develop the agrarian sector
also through this event.

Miroslav Toman, president of the Agrarian Chamber of
the CR:
These fairs rank amongst the largest agricultural events in Europe. They are the
meeting point for farmers, as well as gamekeepers, mechanical engineers,
veterinary surgeons and just anyone who works in the countryside, takes care of
if, cares for it and develops it for the future. I am very glad that this fair
brings innovations and upgrade options, all the more because we are going to handle
fund allocations from the Rural Development programme in the coming
future. We are making every effort to make sure that a part of these funds –approximately
30 percent – will be allocated for upgrades and innovations and therefore we
wish to make sure that agriculture moves forward and Czech farmers do better
and that people can enjoy good quality foodstuffs and the countryside can further
develop.

Chairman of the Agricultural Union of the CR, Martin
Pýcha:
Agriculture is in a good condition. These are companies that do not only
assemble, but also develop and manufacture top quality agriculture equipment.
Last edition was already record breaking, this year‘s edition too, and I am
convinced that this year‘s edition will be record-breaking both as to the
number of exhibitors and the number of visitors.

Dušan Benža, director of the secretariat of the
Association of Agricultural and Forestry Equipment:Just like every edition, even this fair is record- breaking. This
is also viewed in a very positive way by visitors coming from abroad. We held a
number of meetings with our partners coming from countries such as Great
Britain and France, as well as with the representatives of trade fair
administration, for example Russians have their own exhibition stand here. Those
coming to the fair from abroad for the first time must be surprised by its quality
and those who come repeatedly can only confirm that its quality standards keep
increasing. Our member companies I had a chance to talk to are satisfied. Some
firms confirm that they signed several contracts right on the spot and received
orders from new customers, which has not been the case in recent years. This
shows that there is a slight optimism prevailing in the sector of agriculture.

Oto Lasák, executive in Lesnická práce, s.r.o.:
This year’s fairs were record-breaking in all aspects. I would highlight in
particular the large number of visitors. I very much hope that forest keepers
will have comparable conditions provided by the state to those enjoyed by our
farmers. This would make it possible to upgrade and renew the equipment, which
would help in the first place the suppliers of work headed by sole traders and subsequently
the suppliers of machinery who practically do not sell. Government orders must be
freed of the nonsensically low prices of work which make the machinery upgrade
impossible.

Velina Dineva Petkova, owner and editor-in-chief of
the Bulgarian weekly Agrovestnik, organiser of the trade fair mission of
Bulgarian experts:
We were all greatly impressed by the large number of visitors and its
composition as the fair was attended by lots of young people and families with
children. This shows that young people are interested in this sector. Everyone
very much enjoyed the fair organisation and the attention that is paid to the
Bulgarian delegation in Brno. What is also interesting is that other Bulgarian
visitors arrived individually, I met experts on animal production here along
with representatives of New Holland and Zetor and other farm machinery
manufacturers.

Antonín Brzobohatý, executive in S – servis bke, s. r.
o.:
We have been coming to exhibit our products at SILVA REGINA regularly since 2004
and this year we are very satisfied. Perhaps the number of visitors is too high
but, of course, this is excellent. We attend lots of game keeping exhibitions
but I have never seen so many people there, neither in this country nor abroad.
We have come here for two reasons – to make the visitors happy by giving them a
chance to shoot and to promote our laser shooting ranges. People are queuing up
here all day long. It goes without saying that our participation has a
commercial dimension, too, as our turnover increases for approx. half a year
after the fair.

Pavlína Vašíčková, Forest Management Department of the
Ministry of Agriculture of the CR:Forest
pedagogy is a regular supporting event at the SILVA REGINA fair but this year we have decided to
structure it slightly differently, we have expanded our presentation space
and we also focus on children. We prepared several areas where they can learn
what a forester must be able to do to take care of a forest. This year we are
highly satisfied with the interest of the visitors. On the first trade fair day
they kept us busy from the morning till the evening. Now the pupils come and
say goodbye by saying that they have enjoyed it here, which is always nice to
hear.

Šárka Holzbachová, head of IT department, Forestry and
Game Management Research Institute:We regularly exhibit at the SILVA REGINA fair and I view this
year’s edition as very successful also because of the high visitor rate. Also
at our exhibition stand we felt that the number of people was larger than in
previous years. We come to present here activities of our institute and to us,
the trade fair is very important as an opportunity to contact professionals. For
example, we are presenting here our explanted woody species bank and other things
that people cannot get close to otherwise, and therefore the visitors show
great interest.

Petr Cankař, owner of ATMOS:
We are absolutely satisfied with the fair not only in terms of the number of
visitors but also in terms of the number of exhibitors and the general standard.
We were also successful in terms of business deals. We come here every two
years and being a manufacturer of heating equipment we have customers amongst farmers
as well as foresters and gamekeepers and therefore this fair is an ideal
opportunity for us.

Jan Kadubec, head of marketing department, LIEBHERR –
STAVEBNÍ STROJE CZ s.r.o.:Compared to the previous editions of the SILVA REGINA fairs, we took this one
in a more comprehensive way and we brought with us five machines, of which two are
to be deployed in the wood-processing industry and three are intended for
agricultural production. We tried to turn the entire exhibition stand into a
place comfortable for our customers, with great facilities and ample space to
showcase the machines. We are definitely satisfied with the visitor rate.
Although our stand is roughly twice bigger than in the past it was never empty.
Sunday was truly hectic, mainly families with children arrived and from Monday
we started having business meetings and each our salesperson held meetings with
invited customers. We will evaluate the fair once it is over but in terms of
the number of visitors we already consider it as very successful.

Jan Šípek, marketing manager, STROM PRAHA a.s.:
This year‘s edition of Techagro was excellent. Our stand was chock-a-block full
all the time, incredible, crammed. Our company has traditionally visited the
fair since 1994, this year it was not easy to get a larger exhibition stand as the
exhibition centre was fully occupied. We were fighting with other exhibitors
for every piece of exhibition space. BVV Trade Fairs Brno were accommodating
and we managed to get a larger stand than last time, approximately 2,000 square
meters. The exhibition stand focused on John Deere. However, space was also
provided for other companies from our offer, special machinery for forest applications
was on display in Hall. We were very satisfied here.

Vlastimil Zeman, sales support manager in MERIMEX s.
r. o.:
Given the number of visitors that is record-breaking again, we are very satisfied.
Our stand is full of people all the time, there is always someone here to talk about
innovations, always someone to present our products to. Weather is great, too. We
have established a couple of new contacts that appear quite promising and
therefore we are also satisfied in business terms. We have had mainly Slovak
customers and two of them discuss specific contracts, which has not happened to
us yet.

Josef Kučera, director of the Union of Czech
Fleckvieh cattle breeders We are back at TECHAGRO after two years.
Over that time, our breeders have done a great deal of work. Last year, our
average yield was for the first time over 7,000 kg of milk, which again
confirmed our top position in Europe. We have a lot to offer to our partners as
well as those who come to visit us at the fair. At the next table there are our
colleagues from Moldavia who came to select heifers from our farms for
their herds, and we are going to get visited by colleagues from Uzbekistan,
and a great interest in cooperation was expressed last week in Vietnam.

Ctibor Zourek, head of business information department,
MIKROP ČEBÍN
We can see that the agricultural companies have become consolidated and achieve
relatively good economic results. This is also reflected in the interest in the
TECHAGRO fair, which is, based on the information of BVV, the largest event of
the year. The visitors‘ interest has been enormous this year and of course we
feel it, too. We also use this opportunity to meet our customers and to thank
them. I view our presence in Brno positively.

Jan Bernardy, president of the Chamber of Veterinary
Surgeons of the Czech RepublicThe Brno trade fair is a great joyful
event, starting with Techagro, the Central European Congress of Veterinary
Surgeons and the Animal Vetex fair. It offers a number of livestock to be seen
which is quite rare here in the south of Moravia given the reduction in the
livestock count over the past years in Brno and in the entire region as such. It
is a joy to come here to have a look.

Michal Karmazín, business manager, AGRICO
We are one of the companies that have exhibited at Techagro since the very
beginning. This year’s cooperation with BVV Trade Fars Brno during the
preparation was very good, it was accommodating and flexible. As regards the
number of visitors, Sunday surpassed expectations and Tuesday, which is
traditionally the main and crucial day for us, manufacturers and suppliers of
stable equipment, met our expectations. At the exhibition stand we talked to
our existing as well as new customers about projects in the pipeline, we
registered, for example, a great interest in our fish breeding recirculation system
using waste heat from biogas stations, which is an exhibit entered in the Grand
Prix competition.

Libor Novotný, product manager, BAUER
Our company focuses on export, the main reason why we attend the fair in Brno
is to promote our brand and show our current offer in animal production. We
have brought with us farm and stable models as well as examples of technologies
that we can offer to our customers. We noticed a greater interest of the
visitors in milk production and the resulting installations for milk cows and
dairies. We were satisfied with the number of visitors, mainly from Monday to
Wednesday.

Josef Maňásek, executive, GEA Farm Technologies CZ
We see TECHAGRO as a very good fair introducing new information and knowledge
to the farmers, which is also reflected in the visitor rate. We were surprised
by the number of people interested in the showcased exhibits. The main
attraction at our exhibition stand was the milking robot MIone, which was on
display for the first time and although it had not yet been installed anywhere
in the Czech Republic, the response was great , similarly to the brand new milking
equipment, the Apollo system.

František Kolář, sales representative, ALEX INDUSTRIES
In Brno, we offered our complete product portfolio of stable technologies for
cows, pigs and horses and our exhibition stand introduced an innovation in the
field of ventilation for pigs, being a system of air inlet to the stall via a
feeding air distributor which can be extended by air cooling. We also noticed
interest in air washers that our company can build in directly in the exhaust
duck and therefore no central air washer is needed. Our expectations from the
fair were fulfilled we are satisfied with the number of visitors and the
general course of the exhibition.

Petr Svadbík, business manager in Pilous-pásové pily,
spol. s r.o.:
This year’s Techagro and Silva Regina were a major event which was translated
in the number of visitors coming to our stand. It was full all the time, there
were many people interested in our saws. We even made a deal with some of the
farmers at the fair concerning the purchase of our smaller wood saws. We were
satisfied, the fair was beneficial for our company. Of course, we will also
take part in the next edition of these trade fairs.

Vlastimil Vozník st., sales representative in BV
Technika, a.s.:
This fair is better than the one held in German Hannover and the best of this
kind in Europe. In fact, we had no time to leave the exhibition stand as we had
to attend to our potential clients all the time. This event was highly
beneficial for the company and I think that for the others, too. In my view, Techagro
will also have a great influence on the agricultural equipment sale recovery notwithstanding
the fact that companies made new contacts here. I am pleased that our company
could introduce new machinery here, in particular the high-performance fodder
harvester.

Petr Dlouhý, Chairman of the Board of Directors of HZT
Technik-servis, a.s.:
For us, Techagro is a very important exhibition as it is for other
manufacturers. Our Dutch partner wanted us to present ourselves in Brno on such
a large scale. In terms of its presentation, Techagro is comparable with the Hannover
trade fair. The company was satisfied with its participation. This year experienced
a record-breaking number of exhibitors and visitors. The high number of
visitors was also caused by nice weather as all work in the field is completed.
The boss of the Dutch company Triolieta arrived in Brno to discuss new contacts
in the CR and to negotiate new contracts in the CR. We were very satisfied.

Valentíny Marek, product manager in Maschio Gaspardo:
I find the Techagro fair to be highly professional. Our exhibit was visited by
a large number of professional visitors who understand machinery and know what they
want to buy. When they see new technology, they ask immediately how the
machines work. Our stand was visited by a host of potential customers, being
present at the fair paid off as we showed that we were able to offer a
comprehensive programme for soil cultivation. We also established new contacts
and reinforced the existing ones.

David Pokorný, marketing manager, Bednar FTM s.r.o.:
This year’s Techagro was most successful, the firm was very pleased to see that
it can make its brand more and more visible for the farmers. This year, our
stand had triple capacity compared to the previous edition and it proved to be
the right decision. Our stand was crammed all the time by people interested in
agricultural technology. I must repeat that this is what we see as a huge
success. If we want to be strong players in the market, we must not be missing
in Brno and we must make the very best impression.

Pavel Kouřil, authorised sales representative of Krone
for the Czech and Slovak Republics:
To me, Techagro was very successful. Given the large number of visitors we had
to order more promotional materials as our equipment was in great demand. We
are pleased that we managed to win the Techagro Grand Prix for automatic calibration.
We were visited by the marketing boss from Krone who declared that Techagro is like
smaller Agritechnika, which takes place in Hannover. The company is very happy
about its participation at the Brno fair.

Mojmír Freund, marketing manager UNIMARCO a.s.:
The company made a good move by moving from Hall V to Hall P. This was
also appreciated by our customers, we liked that no show was taking place in
his hall and the hall was thus peace and quiet for proper meetings as this fair
was virtually hectic, with many people interested in our equipment. In economic
terms, the fair was a success for the company, we established lots of new
contacts and strengthened the existing ones. Our clients took a decision right
here to upgrade their machinery using mechanisation we supply although they
fall into the more expensive category that cannot be bought via the Internet. Given
the extreme visitor rate this year, we must also appreciate the organisation of
the trade fair coping with the arrivals of visitors and parking. That was why
our partners managed to always come to the meeting in time.

Přemysl Šedivý, executive, AGROMEX:
This year’s edition of the fair was a success, we even stroke some deals right
at the fair. We had meetings with our customers and our business partners every
day. We were visited by our colleagues from the CR as well as Poland, Hungary
and Slovakia. This year‘s event will certainly help the agricultural machinery
market recovery and as far as I can see, it may also boost the sale of tractors
and other mechanisms in some time. This was demonstrated by the interest of the
farmers coming to the trade fair.

Milan Matula, marketing manager, AGRALL:
We were satisfied with this year’s trade fair in all respects – excellent organisation,
large number of visitors and a huge interest in our product offer. We did not
believe that we would sell some equipment right at the trade fair, but we did,
thanks to the great interest, although this was not our priority. We presented
nine innovations that we introduced to our business partners. We also held lots
of meetings with our new potential customers.